Dodd receiving his IAFF membership at its legislative conference.Dodd authors the Foreclosure Prevention Act and Federal Housing Authority Modernization Act, which protects consumers from predatory lending practices. Both of these bills are included in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 in addition to the HOPE for Homeowners Act, which Dodd helps to push through Congress. The HOPE for Homeowners Act is a voluntary program to help distressed borrowers refinance their mortgages.

Senator Dodd is appointed co-chair of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus and is made an honorary member of the International Association of Fire Fighters. He is only the fourth non-fire fighter and the first elected official to receive the honor in the IAFF’s 90-year history.

Dodd speaking at a newborn screening event.Senator Dodd authors the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007, which becomes law on April 24. The bill establishes grants to provide educational programs, screening, counseling or health care services to newborns or children having or at risk for heritable disorders; provides education and training in newborn screening and disorders to health care professionals and laboratory personnel; and establishes a system to assess and coordinate treatment of congenital, genetic and metabolic newborn disorders.

Senator Dodd cosponsors a bill that provides for extensions of leases of certain land by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. The bill is signed into law on May 8.

Dodd at a press conference on Emmett Till.Senator Dodd introduces the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which is signed into law on October 8. The bill, named for Emmett Till, a teenager who was mutilated and murdered while on a summer vacation in Money, Mississippi in 1955, provides the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) the authority needed to reopen Civil Rights-era criminal cases which have gone cold. The bill also provides for a Deputy Chief in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division of DOJ and a Supervisory Special Agent in the Civil Rights Unit of the FBI to focus on investigating and prosecuting the unsolved murder cases that occurred during the Civil Rights-era.

Dodd authors the United States Fire Administration Reauthorization Act of 2008, which becomes law on October 8. The bill authorizes appropriations for the U.S. Fire Administration for Fiscal Years 2009 – 2012.

Senator Dodd is instrumental in the passage of the civil nuclear agreement between India and the United States.

As millions of Americans lose their homes during the economic recession, Senator Dodd fights to protect homeowners bypassing the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act in the fall of 2008. Dodd’s protections require the Treasury to modify troubled loans to help keep American families in their homes.